


That Anchor

by katikat



Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst, Character Death, Family, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-29
Updated: 2018-06-29
Packaged: 2019-05-30 13:08:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 872
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15097343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katikat/pseuds/katikat
Summary: That’s his mission right now. Not revenge, not the recovery of that damn thing everybody’s after, it seems. No. This! A death story what-if set in episode 222. (Unbeta'd)





	That Anchor

He wasn’t there when it happened.

When it happened, he was sitting across the table from Matilda Webber in the gray, harshly lit interrogation room at the Phoenix Foundation HQ, and they were having a go at each other about his actions and her intentions and Mac’s life.

And then her phone rang and she got the news: the top secret research facility in the Nevada desert, the one harboring the UFO the Foundation was asked to investigate, was attacked. Half the personnel was dead, Doctor Herman was dead, the UFO was gone… and Mac and Riley were badly hurt,  _shot_.

Suddenly, all their differences, all the details they were arguing about only moments ago, didn’t seem as important anymore, only getting to their people and figuring out what the hell happened.

But that was then. Now, Jack’s sitting in the dimly lit room in the ICU of the local hospital, holding Mac’s hand tight, keeping the kid  _here_ with the power of his will and the strength of his touch alone, it seems. Because Mac’s all there is now.

Because Riley’s gone. She died before they got here, to Nevada. Actually, she died before they even left Los Angeles but they didn’t know that back then. Back then, Jack thought there was still a chance for both of his kids, Mac  _and_ Riley, to survive this. Back then, he didn’t know that the one bullet, that single goddamn bullet that hit her, caught her in the heart,  _directly_ in the heart. She died before Jack got to say goodbye.

She died before  _Diane_ got to say goodbye. Diane who arrived there, in Nevada, via the Phoenix Foundation jet, courtesy of Matilda Webber, while Mac was still in surgery. He’d been in surgery for ten hours straight by then and Jack was a mess because he just lost the woman he considered his daughter and the man he considered his son, his brother, his charge, his partner,  _his best friend_  was fighting for his life on the operating table.

And when Diane Davis arrived, furious and distraught and heartbroken, desperate and  _despairing_ , and in the need of putting the blame  _somewhere_ , he became an easy target, Jack did. Because he felt he deserved her wrath. So he let her slap him and rage at him and blame him for everything, for dragging her daughter into this life, for not keeping her little girl safe, for…  _existing_.

Jack just stood there and let her because he understood very well how she felt, this amazing woman with an amazing daughter who was now gone. So he stood there, with his eyes down, feeling guilty and deeply ashamed, knowing he failed both her and Riley, and he didn’t defend himself, he didn’t say a word, until…

Until Diane screamed into his face, breath hitching and voice raw, “Why does your boy get to live when my daughter’s gone?!”

Until she dragged Mac into it. Because that wouldn’t do. Not Mac. Never  _him_.

That was when Jack caught Diane’s flailing arms, and looking straight into her burning, tear-filled eyes, he told her in a voice so very thick with emotions, “None of this is Mac’s fault, Diane. He tried to save your daughter, he tried! From what the EMTs said, he shielded her with his own body, Diane.” He shakes her a little. “With his own body! And he bought himself three bullets in the back for his effort. One shattered his rib, causing massive internal bleeding. One hit so close to his spine the doctors aren’t sure he’ll ever walk again! And one passed right through him, Diane. The bullet that killed your daughter, it had to go  _through Mac_ to get to her. Do you understand that, Diane?  _Do you_?”

And that’s when she broke down,  _truly_ broke. For a moment, she simply stared at him, trembling, and then her knees gave out and she folded, she sank to the floor, sobbing, and Jack went down with her and he held her and he cried, too, unabashedly, right there, in the middle of the waiting room.

But that was then. Now, Jack’s still sitting in Mac’s room and he’s still holding the kid’s hand in his and he’s been holding it ever since they let him in. They tried to tell him to leave, to  _force_ him to leave, but every time he let go, all the machines went haywire, blinking and beeping in alarm, and that wouldn’t do.

So, Jack’s sitting there, holding onto Mac, and Mac’s holding onto his life because of Jack’s hand on his, that anchor keeping him there, it seems. And Jack’s fine with that. He’s going to hold on as long as needed, listening to the hissing  _whoosh_ of the machines breathing for Mac, watching Mac’s chest rise and fall, rise and fall in a steady, almost hypnotic rhythm.

Jack can’t bring back Riley, he would, in a heartbeat, but he can’t. He can help keep Mac here, though, it seems. So, that’s his mission right now. Not revenge, not the recovery of that damn thing everybody’s after, it seems. No. It’s to  _keep Mac alive_. That’s what he’s going to do.

Jack holds on. And Mac lives.


End file.
